Tips for Improving Search Engine Ranking

AAOS realizes that everyone wants their web site to be ranked highly by the major search engines (Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft’s Bing). To a large extent, search engine rankings are dependent on content and, to a lesser extent, the number of sites that link to your web site.

The list below provides some tips and guidelines that, if appropriately used, should improve your site’s search engine listings:

• Most importantly, search engines typically look at the first 500 words on any page to help determine how high a web site should be listed. Make sure that whatever keywords you want people to search you by are contained in the first 500 words. The My approach to treating patients section is the best place for adding this content. In particular:
• Write easy-to-read text.
• The pages you create should provide valuable information that references very specific terms and concepts that are unique to your website.
• Stay organized around the topic - It's always beneficial to organize your content so that visitors have a good sense of where one content topic begins and another ends.
• Use relevant language - Think about the words that a patient might use to search for content on your site. Patients who know a lot about the topic may use different keywords in their searches than one who is new to the topic.
• If possible, link to some popular sites. (The footer of all OrthoDoc web sites links to AAOS, but search engines typically give the footer section the lowest priority.)
• If possible, have popular web sites link to you. Google, in particular, gives preference to web sites that are linked from other web sites. Where possible, you should ask your hospital, clinics that you practice at, your partners, and other entities that have web sites to link to yours.
• The number of visits a web site receives each month also affects the rankings. All things being equal, a high volume web site will always out-rank a low volume one. We realize this is a chicken-and-egg scenario. But over time, if your site contains content that the public and your patients want, its traffic will grow and your search engine rankings should improve accordingly.
• Think about the words patients will use to find your web site, and make sure that you actually include those words within it. Don't load up pages with irrelevant keywords (sometimes referred to as Keyword Stuffing).
• Go to www.google.com, and search with key words you want your patients to use. Examine the web sites in your results. This is a good method for seeing how other sites achieve high rankings.

Note also that we have added "orthopedic surgeon" to the OrthoDoc META tags. These are hidden tags which sometimes help boost search engine rankings.

Be aware that anything you do to enhance your content will not guarantee you will get the search engine rankings that you desire. The major search engines are continually changing their criteria and you may find it difficult to keep up with them.